Genesis 32:26-32

32:26 Then the man ¹  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ²  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ³  “unless you bless me.” ⁴  32:27 The man asked him, ⁵  “What is your name?” ⁶  He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ⁷  “but Israel, ⁸  because you have fought ⁹  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

32:29 Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” ¹⁰  “Why ¹¹  do you ask my name?” the man replied. ¹²  Then he blessed ¹³  Jacob ¹⁴  there. 32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, ¹⁵  explaining, ¹⁶  “Certainly ¹⁷  I have seen God face to face ¹⁸  and have survived.” ¹⁹ 

32:31 The sun rose ²⁰  over him as he crossed over Penuel, ²¹  but ²²  he was limping because of his hip. 32:32 That is why to this day ²³  the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because he struck ²⁴  the socket of Jacob’s hip near the attached sinew.

[32:26]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ² tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ³ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:26]  ⁴ sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.

[32:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he said to him.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:27]  ⁶ sn What is your name? The question is rhetorical, since the Lord obviously knew Jacob’s identity. But since the Lord is going to change Jacob’s name, this question is designed to bring focus Jacob’s attention on all that his name had come to signify.

[32:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ⁸ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ⁹ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[32:29]  ¹⁰ sn Tell me your name. In primitive thought to know the name of a deity or supernatural being would enable one to use it for magical manipulation or power (A. S. Herbert, Genesis 12-50 [TBC], 108). For a thorough structural analysis of the passage discussing the plays on the names and the request of Jacob, see R. Barthes, “The Struggle with the Angel: Textual Analysis of Genesis 32:23-33,” Structural Analysis and Biblical Exegesis (PTMS), 21-33.

[32:29]  ¹¹ tn The question uses the enclitic pronoun “this” to emphasize the import of the question.

[32:29]  ¹² tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:29]  ¹³ tn The verb here means that the Lord endowed Jacob with success; he would be successful in everything he did, including meeting Esau.

[32:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:30]  ¹⁵ sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face to face here, the name is appropriate.

[32:30]  ¹⁶ tn The word “explaining” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:30]  ¹⁷ tn Or “because.”

[32:30]  ¹⁸ sn I have seen God face to face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.

[32:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and my soul [= life] has been preserved.”

[32:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “shone.”

[32:31]  ²¹ sn The name is spelled Penuel here, apparently a variant spelling of Peniel (see v. 30).

[32:31]  ²² tn The disjunctive clause draws attention to an important fact: He may have crossed the stream, but he was limping.

[32:32]  ²³ sn On the use of the expression to this day, see B. S. Childs, “A Study of the Formula ‘Until This Day’,” JBL 82 (1963): 279-92.

[32:32]  ²⁴ tn Or “because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck.” Some translations render this as an impersonal passive. On the translation of the word “struck” see the note on this term in v. 25.